Chp.22: The Arapaina Gorge

In the end, the enemy army had continued to make no detours. The spies had continued to have difficulty following him, but still managed to keep up well. When the army had arrived about a couple of days away from the Arapaina Gorge the spies had been able to observe it better: thanks to this, Carrion now knew that the actual number was about nine hundred and thirty soldiers (so a little less than he expected), that most of them were swordsmen or halberdiers but that they also had a good number of archers. There were also some spellcasters, albeit very few in number. Leading the army was a lizardman, a certain Zamor, and at his side was the dragon that Carrion hoped to slay.

Apparently Carrion had been right: the presence of many archers testified that the enemy army intended to exploit the Arapaina Gorge to their advantage. If the battle had lasted for several days, the opposing army would certainly have had enough time to position the archers in the right points of the Gorge and in doing so could have created a stalemate that could have lasted even months. The steep walls and narrow surroundings would have prevented a massive attack, and unless Carrion circled the Gorge all the way around, there would be no way to break enemy formation. Even though the rebels were fewer than his men, they could resist easily.

However, that wouldn't be the case. Carrion had already taken all the necessary precautions. General Yvon had left weeks earlier and had already positioned himself in the right place; she had confirmed this by texting him every day. Carrion would attack from one side of the Gorge with just under five thousand soldiers, while Yvon would attack from the opposite side when the time was right; this would have created enough confusion to guarantee a total victory. Once the enemy army was trapped, it could no longer react. Carrion would just have to stand back and watch it all happen, and when the time was right use a recordator and an imprintimaginator to record the whole scene. By then, his plan would have been successfully completed.

The only thing that bothered him was that because of the battlefield he would end up losing many men. He had hoped that the rebellion would take place in a more favorable context… but after all, he could not expect an outnumbered enemy to decide to meet him in the open field. It was obvious that anyone skilled enough to assemble such a rebel army would choose a more strategically advantageous terrain for him. Carrion hated the idea of ​​sending so many of his brave and virtuous men to their deaths… but sadly, if his plan was to be carried out, he could not take the field himself.

It was a necessary sacrifice. Carrion didn't appreciate that, but he understood he had no choice. The deaths of those men would allow peace and order to finally fill the sin-infested land. There couldn't be an omelette if he didn't break a few eggs, after all. And as the commander of an army, Carrion knew when to sacrifice something for the greater good.

It was a law that applied in any conflict. Duels were won with honor and virtuosity. Battles were won by those who were willing to do anything to triumph, using even the worst cunning. Wars were won by those who were willing to sacrifice anything for victory. Thus, the sacrifice of a few handfuls of men, however unwanted, was acceptable to Carrion.

The only factor that could completely change the battle was the dragon. Carrion knew well how dangerous those creatures were, and that dragon (he thought his name was Haku) had already shown that he was capable of defeating fearsome opponents. He had beaten a hydra, indeed a calamity, and lived to tell the tale. Even though he was still a very young dragon, he was still a formidable opponent. If he had taken the field, surely he could have created many problems. Carrion doubted that would happen; from his point of view, knowing the evil and treacherous nature of dragons, it was likely that he would have preferred to stay in the rear with an excuse to escape at the first sign of danger. Or perhaps, very slyly, he would have joined the battle initially taking advantage of the territorial advantage, and then retreated after a short time. Either way, Carrion had to take him out immediately, whether the dragon's plan was to fight or abandon everyone and flee. The man had decided that he would keep an eye on the battlefield and as soon as he noticed the dragon's presence he would use his divine power to unleash a single blow and kill it instantly. He would aim directly at the head, so as to vaporize it and eliminate the dragon once and for all. Once that was done, he would let his soldiers take care of the rest, as he had planned.

With that plan in mind, Carrion led his army of nearly five thousand soldiers toward the Arapaina Gorge. The Gorge was indeed a strange environment: it was composed of a valley located between two gigantic steep walls almost a kilometer high. The terrain sloped extremely obliquely, going down as one went east or up as one went west, creating a drop of nearly two hundred yards from one end of the Gorge to the other. This made the passage for people coming from the east very difficult, especially if there was also mud or debris due to the rain. Luckily it was sunny that day and it hadn't rained for weeks, so the ground was dry, but the ascent would still be difficult for an armed and heavily armored army.

For those who would have come from the west, instead, the situation was extremely advantageous. The elevated position made it possible to create an excellent and effortless defense, and only a few hundred men could have held up against thousands. Furthermore, since their position was higher, they would have had easier access to some cracks in the walls which formed natural paths and which would have allowed the archers to move and reach points from which it would have been easier to hit the enemy army. Had they possessed enchanted arrows or some other type of magical item, they could easily have wreaked utter havoc, all while the relentless defense of their comrades prevented enemies from reaching the trails and thus killing them.

Carrion clearly would have preferred his army to be the one located on the elevated side of the Arapaina Gorge. But of course that wasn't the case. Fortunately his spies had noticed the enemy army in time and he had been able to take the necessary precautions; if they discovered the rebel army too late, eliminating it would be a long and complicated process.

The most efficient way to eliminate the enemy was to use winged mounts, namely wyverns and amphitrites, but at the moment Carrion had a very limited number of them available (he alone had a wyvern, and then there were about ten of his men with amphitrites) due to the fact that people capable of taming such beasts were already rare, and the war had further reduced their number, and most of those who remained had either been recalled to their homeland or were located in the larger cities to control the situation. Since the number of winged mounts at his disposal was small and the enemy had spellcasters, it was likely that they had already taken precautions to eliminate the flying beasts before they even got too close. While taking down an amphitrite wasn't exactly easy, it wasn't even that impossible if you had a lot of magic and a lot of preparation at your disposal. And to top it off, Carrion didn't know the strength level of his enemies. Although it was unlikely, it was possible that there were some level diamonds or higher among them. In that case, the few winged mounts he had available at the moment wouldn't have ended well. There was even the possibility of enemies killing their riders and then taming the beast to use against them. Therefore, Carrion had decided that it was safest to let the ground troops act first and the winged mounts to intervene later, as soon as the enemy army was in chaos from the pincer movement.

When Carrion arrived at Arapaina Gorge, the enemy had not yet arrived. This had given the high royal general some hope, who for a moment had expected to be able to overcome the Gorge and get to the other side before the enemies showed up, so as to be able to face them in a more favorable situation... but unfortunately he hadn't managed to get even halfway up the valley before some figures began to appear in the distance. Seeing this, Carrion promptly halted his men. The west side of the Gorge quickly filled with several beastmen, already armed and ready for battle. And from the looks of them, they even seemed to be content to fight. Carrion could clearly see a lizardman ahead of the rest of the army, dressed slightly better than the others in classic beastmen warpaint, a sign that he must be a leader, who was looking at him with a gaze so cold that the man could almost really feel cold. It was probably Zamor, the leader of the rebellion.

For a few moments, which felt like years, however, the two sides just glared at each other. Carrion's soldiers weren't the least bit intimidated, but the same could be said of the beastmen. Their courage was truly commendable, it had to be admitted. Carrion waited, waiting for the beastmen to choose to attack first, but seeing that they didn't, he decided to take the initiative. But before he could give the order a voice echoed throughout the Gorge: "CARRION!"

The high royal general looked up in the direction from which the voice had come, followed by… well, practically his entire army. Even the beastmen turned away. What Carrion saw surprised him quite a bit: midway between the human and beatsmen armies, about five hundred yards from the base of the Gorge, the rock face was cracked and formed a small flat area, and upon it was a large silver horned lizard. Most soldiers had a hard time seeing it from that distance, but anyone who was at least level diamond could clearly see that it was a dragon. And Carrion, with his divine power, could even see the defiant look in his eyes. "I was waiting for you!" the dragon said again; his voice was so powerful that it could be heard everywhere in the Gorge. "I'm sure you wanted to meet me too. Let's not waste any more time. Come here, I will welcome you with open arms"

Carrion gritted his teeth. That situation clearly reeked of a trap. He extended his divine senses to the max, remembering that in the hydra's presence he had sensed something strange, a sign that the dragon probably had some strange ability that even left residues… but he sensed nothing. It was as if only the dragon was really on the ledge, but Carrion was not at all convinced. "Why do you want to meet me? What purpose do you have?" he asked, amplifying the sound of his voice with his divine power so that the dragon could hear him.

"I just want to get to know you. The beastmen I'm allied with have told me of you as a formidable opponent. Although, at least for now, I don't see all that difference between you and any other newcomer" the dragon answered. "But I admit I'm intrigued by you. Before this battle begins and the two of us fight to the death, I want to talk to you face to face"

"Then why are you staying up there? Come down, and I'll talk to you" Carrion replied.

"Sure, because in fact I could go down much faster than you could go up here using that wyvern, right?" the dragon asked back. "Tsk! Come on, don't you even dare to come up here and talk to a lone and unarmed dragon, who hasn't even unlocked his domain? Really funny, you should pay someone to write it in your memoir. I'm sure people will like the story of the coward general"

Carrion clenched his fists slightly. He certainly wasn't someone to be fooled by such insults, but still it annoyed him to be ridiculed in front of his men.

"If it's your army you're worried about, it's a vain fear. You have my word that the beastmen army won't attack until you and I talk" the dragon said again. "Let's stop wasting time. Come here, and let's have a chat"

Carrion thought hard. Try as he might, he couldn't figure out what the dragon had in mind. There truly seemed to be no trap up there, even his divinely empowered senses felt nothing. The only possibility that occurred to him was that perhaps the dragon was aiming to separate him from his army… but since he had promised not to attack until they talked, that no longer made sense. Furthermore, his soldiers had started to incite him, yelling at him to go to the dragon and show him, while instead the beastmen were laughing and taunting him; if he still refused now or used his power to slay the dragon from that distance, he would look like a coward. As soon as this story had known around, everyone would laugh at him. Reputation was important even for legendary levels. So he finally made up his mind and spurred on his wyvern, which flew up and headed for the ledge where Haku was waiting for him.